What do you think of sentence writing as a punishment for school age children?

Question

Things like:

I will not bug my mom while she's on the phone.

I will not yell at my sister.

I will not cry for stupid reasons anymore.

I will not run in the house anymore.

Answer 1

Hmmm...I think it does not teach you anything...just writing XD but it does help keep the vision in your head not to do somthing again! It does make me think twice about doing something wrong(i did this in school) so I wont have to write 20 sentances over and over =/

Answer 2

I think it is a really good idea I used to make my kids write them.And they hated it!!!!!!

Answer 3

I agree but you might want to change your sentences a bit.

Things like:

I will not interrupt my mom while she's on the phone.

I will not disrespect my sister.

I will not cry for unnecessary reasons.

I will not run in the house.

The work bug, stupid and anymore aren't good words. Be careful what type of words you use around your child. Another thing that you can do is let them look up word and write the definitions.

Answer 4

Anything intensely, mind-numbingly repetitive is always an effective punishment.  Have them open and close a dresser drawer 400 times, it doesn't matter.  Punishments are always used for conditioning purposes, i.e. teaching your children to associate negative consequences with certain actions.  I wouldn't pretend they will actually learn a lesson, however.

Answer 5

I think it's effective because the point of any punishment is to make the child do something they dislike so they won't repeat the offense.  If they hate writing, hopefully they won't repeat the offense in the future because they will know that they will have to write lines.  If a child loves writing, then the punishment won't be effective because they enjoy it.  You may have to think of another consequence.  Again, the effectiveness of any punishment depends on the child and what works and doesn't with them.

Answer 6

i wouldn't have a child write anything about "stupid reasons" because the reason isn't stupid to them. but, at school we had to do lines and it SUCKED!!! definitely a good punishment for minor "crimes" but not for major stuff. my mom once made me write an essay as punishment on WHY i shouldn't do what i did. it sucked as well, i still remember having to do it 15 years later.

Answer 7

my mom tried that once...didn't work for me because i loved to write anyway and really what does that do??

Answer 8

I think a better punishment would be to write a short essay on why they should not do whatever

Answer 9

well....my first advice is to choose your battles wisely, children should hear no more no's than they're age, so for instance, my daughter is 7...so when I reach 7 nos in a day....I can't tell her no anymore.

my second advice....get rid of the word "stupid" or any word that would even suggest stupid, such as the words...dumb, moron, r****d, etc, why? well one..its mean, two...it creates low self worth...your basically telling your child you think they are stupid (might not be what you mean, but its what it will come across as) or that they're feelings are stupid, after all to you what they are crying about may seem stupid..but to them its not.

my question is...how much time is mom on the phone? and whats bugging? you have to be careful here as school age children don't have the concept of time, nor, do they have the concept of emergencies..not really anyway, one time I told my daughter that she could not interrupt me on the phone, so one day, I'm on the phone, and she fell down our stairs..but didn't tell me because I told her not to interrupt while I was on the phone....she had a broken foot from the fall. so you need to be careful in what you convey.

some better options of sentences?

I will not interrupt

I will be nice to my sister

I will not whine to get my way

I will be respectful of our house

other than that..I think writing is a great idea...children learn by repetition, so writing something over and over again drills it into they're mind, we make our daughter write..she is 7, and whatever the offense is, she has to write it 30times, what does this do? well....when she does the offense again, we make her read it over and over to herself, also..she hates to write. or, its not the writing really..she hates to have to stay still, and also, we make her do it really really neatly, so she has to take her time..which she hates.

Answer 10

It never bothered me. I don't know I kid who actually learns anything from it, other than they start to hate writing anything.

Answer 11

well i just got spanked over my aunts knee skirt up panties off and spanked till my butt was red

Answer 12

I think it's absolutely a horrible idea. It's in the same mold of making a child read as punishment. Instead of reading that your kid will hate it will be writing.

Answer 13

Maybe you should write 1,000 times over and over again am I retarded? Because any parent who uses this as a punishment is absolutely retarded. Do I really have to go into why this punishment is not a punishment? Anyone who uses this as punishment is lazy. Instead of taking the time and actually disciplining the child you have them write something over and over again further making them hate school, yeah good job! I think you may want to learn how to be a parent first instead of doing some crappy new age century bull **** you find in those types of parenting books!

Answer 14

I'm not sure about it.  I did it a couple times when I was young and really it wasn't all that bad to me.  I wrote a hundred lines and that was it.  It didn't phase me.  Taking away privileges is more of a punishment than writing lines over and over again.  

But I won't argue with anyone who claimed it to be effective for them or their child(ren).  If it works, it works.  If it doesn't, then it doesn't, but if it doesn't I'd hope the parents would look into more effective means of punishment.

And just to say now because I know that some take the view of punishment teaches nothing:  a school aged child does not need a detailed explanation as to why they their behavior is wrong.  At that age they know why.  Our job is to remind them why it's wrong and then give a fair consequence for the action.  Cause and effect.  They aren't two years old anymore.  They understand right from wrong.

Answer 15

Honestly, the children do not learn anything. I cannot believe that people actually have children writing things over and over as punishment. Just because they have to write something 100 times does not mean that they will not do it again. They will not think twice because writing something repetitively is not exactly punishment. They will probably act up even more if they think that is their "punishment". Try no TV, no WII, no video games, earlier bedtimes, and best of all dessert. They may hate you for a day or so, but they will get over it very quickly. With that, manners and respect will come.